I smell DANGER..

adventurous girl huh.

Copy.

This hit me quite hard today. My heart sank and I felt like a failure. Maybe I had not taught him enough. Maybe. I don't know. Tears just started welling up my eyes. It all started with the Chinese spelling test in school. Long story cut short.  Isa admitted he copied from his classmate's book earlier this week. I froze when I heard that. What would be your response? I only had a couple of seconds to think as I was behind the wheel. First thing first, I took a deep breathe and asked, "Why did you copy?" Isa, in his very innocent tone, replied, "Because my friend, RT, showed me as she knew I could not write the word." I was speechless. After 108730589 minutes of talking sense out of him. He apologised with these exact words. "I am sorry for telling a lie and I copy my friend's book."

"But baby, haven't I told you before that copying is a wrong thing to do?" 

He nodded his head in silence. It was the longest drive ever.

After I cleared up thoughts, I prompted Isa to talk. I wanted to let him tell me that instead of me meting out the punishment, I wanted him to tell me how can we do to help him remember this incident (and not repeating it of course!). He sadly told me that I could take away his privileges (of playing with the iPad  over the weekends and no TV time for a week) and he will do what I want him to do (extra work). I had to explain really clearly that taking away privileges was an easy way out and doing more work is NOT a punishment, rather they should be activities that will occupy his time with the no TV time period. He nodded in head with agreement.

This was the only punishment I gave him. 

Writing lines.

This incident is definitely not something that I am proud of cos I feel as lousy as he did. But I was more that glad that I handled the situation with a cool head. The old me would have easily gave him a slap on the palm .. or at worst time.. the face. :( But thank God I did not. The other thing that I also asked him to do is to paste this at the fridge with a magnet so as to remind himself NOT to commit this mistake again.  My stomach still felt queasy.

Writing his lines in the stationary car while waiting for Papa Ray to get off work.

Lines all written before he slept.

Ray papa then took over the role of the middle man. He had a 5 minute heart to heart talk with his lil man.

We always have this habit to do this. I am the bad guy, he is the good.

So before Isa slept, I still kissed him and told him,

"Mama still love you, even though you did something wrong today."

"Mama, I love you too. I will be your good boy. I promise."

We hooked our pinkies.

Source

What I had learnt from this incident:

• Level headed - We need to be cool before we tackle a knotty situation. Taking in a deep breath works for me. Being emotional and being angry DO NOT help. 
• Ask for the truth - allow children to explain before we jump into conclusions.
• Practical - Have a punishment that will make him remember. It should not be physically detrimental (which is why I still do not buy the cane till now). Avoid talking about ambiguous future story on how he will be "punished" for other mistakes.
• Be consistent - just like how Isa had expected, taking away privileges was predictive for him. 
• Follow up - punishment is just a solution for the moment. Do something that can remind your child NOT to repeat the same mistake again. 

#disclaimer: my anecdotes are merely my own observations and opinions. I do not represent any centres or any early childhood theories though I am a trained early childhood educator. 

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Isa's first visit to the dentist.. Part 1

Beginning of the story..

Isa is K2 this year right. So I was quite prepared for him to have loose teeth of any kind. But boy I was in for a surprise!And while I was doing it, I spotted a decay molar!

I nearly went crazy and quickly went to book an appt with Dr Lee An Qi from Victoria Dentalcare at Rivervale Mall for his first visit. Seriously I am not sure how many more dentistry visits I will have after this, just that I am sure it will not stop at one.

In order to let Isa feel better, I booked my appt together with him. And he had to order me to be on the butcher's chair first. 

Ha.. thank God the condition of my teeth is not that bad but there had been two more little decay holes since 2007 and I had to do a follow up on this as well. Yes it has been that long since I last visited a dentist.

Anyway here is Isadore in action.

the doubtful look.

still happy..

*nervous*

Dr gave him a cutey pair of crab sunglass to wear.

Trying out his sunglass.

There she is, Dr Lee.

Then he had to go for an xray to check the depth of his decay tooth.

It is the second molar on the top left side.

This special brown outfit is the anti-xray radiation suit.

Still very cooperative.

Ok done.

There u see, the black shadow on the top row is the decay tooth and the U shaped shadow on the same tooth is the nerve (or what they call the pulp) of the molar.

Here is a clearer picture on which is the second molar.

Verdict: Root canal required. :(

Last round of brushing before going off.

His reward from the dentist: a sticker for doing a good job!

Second step: we were referred to a pediatric dentist in KKH for the follow up.

Will update in another post as our appointment is on 21 March 2013. *gulps*

By the way, some tips to keep your children's teeth in good condition? "Let them brush and help them at times if possible" was the dentist's advice. Guess I was too slack. I let him brush and monitor still it slipped my mind that he did not brush properly thus the molar had the chance to become decay. 

So for now, what we can do it to encourage Isa to brush his teeth for 3 minutes each time, twice a day.

Till next post.

Oops..

Mama.. Why did you cut my skin under my nail?
:(

Crying once, crying twice..

Ms Pinu just fell sick.. again.

We sorta suspected that this time round she got the virus from Ray papa, as she got it from me two weeks ago but the virus went away after a couple of days. But scary to say, the current condition of her stuffy nose and crying got worst.

And I really meant worst. So much for an aching left arm.

Here is a typical crying session:

She can wail.. for a continuous 10 minutes. 

We tried cradling her and gave her a pacifier. Bottled fed her with water. Walked around and talked to her in a low tone voice. Rolled my eyes one thousand times while doing all the above. Technically speaking, when you thought that nothing works, her crying will stop suddenly.

One of the methods that works so far is a milk feed. But we can only do it when its near her feeding time. And best of all, she cannot be medicated cos she is too young! 

So guess we just have to try to be more patience with her while praying for her virus to go away.

HFMD.. contd

06 May:

Isa slept for more than 10 hrs at night for the last few days and on top of that, he also took a close to 2.5 hrs nap which is not normal cos my little frd can usually survive on a total of 10hr sleep routine everyday. Today is pretty much the same. Totally no food intake, just ice cold milk, ice water, ice cream and some yogurt. The ulcers on the tip of the tongue is just so terrible! Seeing them makes my heart ache so much.

07 May:

Slight improvement for today as Isa managed to eat some biscuits with yogurt. Don't ask me why such a combination and he can still take it. Well I just don't bother. So as long as some food can go down his stomach, I am fine. On top of that, he ate some pancake from Prima Deli (squashed and smashed), some bits of bread and some instant pizza. Sounds good?

By the way, his tongue has a bad milk thrust due to no food intake and little brushing of teeth. And there is a weird stench coming out from his mouth.

08 May:

Woke up and managed to brush Isa's teeth. YEAH!

Its coming lunch time. Let's see what he can eat later :D

HFMD hit Isa.. again

Not sure if you remember but Isa got hit by the HFMD virus when he was abt 2.5yo.

http://rayconniebaby.blogspot.com/2009/07/hfmd.html

Anyway here is the 2nd time and which I hope it will be the last.

03 May: I felt something was not right as Isa seemed to be running a low grade fever in the morning at around 615am. I took his temp. Bingo. 37.5'C. Sms school bus aunt not to come fetch him. Sms Manager said I need take child sick leave. Brought him to the doc when he woke up at 11am. Doc gave him 2 days MC and said monitor for another day before bringing back for review. Isa told me he has a ulcer on his tongue. No spots noted for palms and feet.

Thru out the day Isa's appetite does not seemed as good as normal. He seemed more lethargic compared to normal days. Took a long afternoon nap and even slept early that night.

04 May: I went back to work and request to get off work early as I am still covered under child sick leave. I sorta felt lousy as I knew that little fellow at home needs me but somehow I felt obligated to go back to work. Anyway I reach home at around 4pm and brought him to the doc again. This time, blisters were obviously seen on his palms and feet. Doc certified him as a confirmed case of HFMD and requested me to fill up a form for the Ministry. I called Isa's school and report his case. Our frd still had dinner, just half a bowl of porridge with ice water. Wonderful combination isn't it?

05 May: I went back to work again and request to get off work earlier. Ray papa is at home accompanying the lil man. When I gave Ray papa a call at around 1.30pm, our lil frd was crying badly at home. I knew it was Mr Drama at action so I decided to come back as soon as I could but the earliest time I managed to go was 4pm. Darn some stupid person who gave me some stupid task who left before I did. Anyway I called when I left school and since lil brat was taking his afternoon nap, I took the chance to go AMK Central to catch up with my beauty supplies, my dose of bubble tea and also to stock up on my "cooling" tea supplies.

Accordingly to Ray papa, lil brat did not eat much today. He had his morning milk (chilled), abt 3 teaspoons of macaroni and some water, he basically did not eat anything else. I thought I was clever enuf to buy beancurd for Isa but alas! He did not even had more than 3 teaspoons too. Dinner was just another tetra pack of chilled milk and 2 cups of ice chilly water.

Let's see how he is tmr..

Please keep us in your prayers.

blur worm..

does Isa looks he just had a fall?

close shot. 3rd day of recovery.

anyway its not even a fall, it so happened to that Isa was not paying attention when walking and his knee gave way and knelt on the rough ground near the main road while walking to school with me on Tuesday.

and pay attention to the funny way Isa wants his pyjamas pants to be on his left leg.

HFMD..

oh no..

the results of new pair of sandals so babysitter said he is not used to it..

ho hum.. :(

definitely heartpain but as usual, my prince didnt cry so I also relag :D

something that little monster is scared of..

PINEAPPLES!
don't ask me why.. I dunno..
haha..

First time..

this happened when Isadore puts his finger inside a can
a can of drink which papa was drinking and though papa tried to pull the can away from Isadore but he did not realize that Isadore's finger had already been cut by the sharpness of the edge of the tab area.
well ask me if i panic. I will be proud to say: "no" and as a ex childcare teacher, I applied the typical first aid I learnt and blood cease to flood after 3 min
and poor papa felt so guilty after this incident and he never dare to hold a can drink near Isadore again.. hiakz*